Doing a repair yourself feels free because the invoice is missing. It is not missing. It moves into your evenings, your fuel, your trips to the store, and your time with her. The honest comparison is not the cost of parts against the cost of a crew. It is the whole week you would spend against the afternoon a crew would spend.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Count the hours, not the parts
Before you pick up a tool, write down how long the job will really take, not how long it looks like it should take. Add the trip to buy materials, the trip to return the wrong size, the time to clear the work area, and the clean-up at the end. The first attempt at any repair usually takes the longest, because you are learning the wall as you open it.
Then ask what happens if the first attempt fails. If the patch does not hold, the second attempt costs the same hours as the first, plus whatever the failed attempt damaged. A job you can finish in one session is a different decision from one that needs three weekends.
Count who is home while you work
Working on a job means you are not available for something else during those hours. If she is home during the work, count how she will move through the space you are working in, where she will sit, and what she needs from you while you are on the ladder or under the sink. A repair that blocks her path to the bathroom or the kitchen is not a small job, even if the part was cheap.
Know the lines that are not yours to cross
Some work sits outside what a family can reasonably do, even when the instructions look simple. Gas connections, electrical work beyond swapping a fixture, and anything that changes how a door or a path works for someone who depends on it are places to slow down. The question is not only whether you can do it. It is whether a failure would leave the house harder to use or less safe for her, and whether a licensed person should stand behind the result.
Your local building office can tell you which kinds of work need a permit where you live. You do not have to memorize the code. You only need to know when the question is worth asking.
A simple way to decide
Write three numbers on one page: your hours, your trips, and the number of days the house will be disrupted. Next to them, write the hours a hired crew would need and whether they bring their own tools. If your hours are high, your trips are many, or the job changes how she gets through the house, the honest answer may be to hire out the piece that drags and keep the small fixes you can finish in one sitting. The goal is not to be handy. It is to keep the house working for her without wearing you down.